John Simon

John Simon (28 February 1873-11 January 1954) was British Foreign Secretary from 5 November 1931 to 7 June 1935 (succeeding Rufus Isaacs and preceding Samuel Hoare) and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 28 May 1937 to 10 May 1940 (succeeding Neville Chamberlain and preceding Kingsley Wood).

Biography
John Simon was born in Manchester, England in 1873, and he was educated at Fettes and Oxford. He was called to the bar in 1899, and was elected to Parliament for the Liberal Party to represent Walthamstow in 1906. In 1910, he was appointed Solicitor-General, and in 1913 entered the Cabinet as Attorney-General. Despite his initial opposition to British participation in World War I, H.H. Asquith made him Foreign Secretary, and he served from 1915 to 1916. However, he resigned in opposition to conscription. He then served with the Royal Flying Corps. He lost his seat in the 1918 Coupon Election, but returned to Parliament in 1922, representing Spen Valley. In opposition, his intellect was put to good use as chairman of a commission on India (1927-30), which issued the Simon Report, advocating greater Indian participation in government. In November 1931, as leader of the breakaway Liberal Nationals, he was Foreign Secretary in Ramsay MacDonald's National Government (1931-5). He supported disarmament and appeasement, and felt unable to intervene rigorously during the Manchurian crisis of 1931. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Agreements further divided Simon's Liberal Nationals from the rest of the Liberals led by Herbert Samuel, who left the government. Simon remained, as Home Secretary under Stanley Baldwin from 1935 to 1937, Chancellor of the Exchequer under Neville Chamberlain from 1937 to 1940, and Lord Chancellor in Winston Churchill's coalition from 1940 to 1945. By the end of his career, he and his Liberal National followers had become Conservatives in all but name.